Props from Steven Spielberg’s Jaws will be on display at the Academy Museum starting on Sunday.
This is the museum’s biggest exhibition, according to the website. KNX News’ Nataly Tavidian reported the display recreates the blockbuster’s story with more than 200 artifacts.
"When you open the door to the exhibition, you're immediately underwater. Recalling the opening scene, you're the shark,” Jenny He, senior curator, said. “It’s your POV as you're hearing the score by John Williams and as you're seeing the title Jaws fade in and out in the gallery, which is paralleled of course to the fade in and out of the title in the film.”
Steven Spielberg, who was at a preview of the exhibition, thought his career was over about halfway through the production of Jaws.
“Everybody was saying to me, ‘You are never going to get hired again. This film is way over budget and way over schedule, and you are a real liability as a director and you are not going to get hired again,’” Spielberg recalled. “So I really thought that. I better give this my all because I'm not working in the industry again after, after they see the movie.”
Instead, the movie became Hollywood’s first blockbuster. Fans can now relive the movie with this new exhibit, which has props audiences have never seen.
“We also have production objects such as Quint's Fighting Chair and a buoy that Chrissy hangs on to for a brief moment of hope in the opening scene,” He, the senior curator, explained.
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Spielberg mentioned how he was stunned that the buoy from the opening scene survived.
“The archives of collectors all over the world who somehow knew something that I didn't know. I mean, why would anybody, when we shot the opening scene of Chrissy Watkins being taken by the shark and we had a buoy floating in the water, how did anybody know to take the buoy and take it home and sit on it for 50 years and then loan it to the academy,” Spielberg said.
Jaws: the Exhibition will be on display from Sept. 14 until July 26, 2026.
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